The present invention generally relates to devices for supporting reading material so that it may be displayed advantageously for perusal and study. There are a great many readers who find reading most comfortable when sitting at a table or the like, with a book supported thereon and their hands free. Aside from casual readers, a device for supporting a book upon a surface and inclined in an upright position for reading is a great convenience, especially for cookbooks, copy material for typists, and the like.
There are known in the prior art many devices for supporting a book or similar reading material in an inclined, upright position. Generally these devices are arranged to clasp an open book between opposed members to support the book and maintain the book open to a selected pair of pages. Such apparatus often renders difficult the process of turning pages, and interrupts the flow of the substance of the reading material with the difficult manipulations required to display a new pair of pages. Furthermore, most prior art devices for supporting a book for reading are not designed for easy portability, and thus cannot be transported with a book. Since many book lovers carry a book with them and read it during free moments, it would be highly desirable to have a book stand that is portable, simply disassembled and erected, lightweight, and inexpensive.
Some book stands that are portable comprise a support bracket inclined upwardly to support the spine of a book, and a tension member extending laterally behind the covers of the open book and secured to the opposed edges of the front and back book covers maintain the book in an opened disposition. Such devices are not well adapted to hold the pages fully open, and require hard cover books to be effective. If such a device is provided with clamps at the opposed ends of the tension member to maintain the book open to the desired pages, the clamps interfere with the process of turning the pages.